About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Annan quits as special UN-envoy for Syria as a further sign that the time for negotiations has passed

Former UN chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday he was stepping down as international envoy for Syria. He complained that his April peace plan had not received the support it deserved.
Annan's resignation is a further sign that attempts to reach a negotiated solution to the Syrian crisis have definitely failed.

Annan

Annan regretted the "increasing militarisation" of the 17-month conflict and bemoaned the lack of consensus on the UN Security Council. "I did not receive all the
support that the cause deserved," he told a press
conference in Geneva, that was hastily organized after UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced his resignation from the UN headquarters in New York.

"Continuous
finger-pointing and name-calling" in the Security Council had hindered
his attempts to implement his six-point peace plan, Annan said, that was supposed to
start with a ceasefire from April 12 that never took hold.
"The increasing militarisation on
the ground and the lack of unanimity in the Security Council
fundamentally changed my role," he said. But he suggested that his successor may have better luck. "The
world is full of crazy people like me. So don't be surprised if
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can find someone who can do a better job
than me," Annan said.
Syria expressed regret that Annan was going. Russia also said it regretted the decision, while Britain, which wants Assad to resign, said it showed that the mediation
process was not working. The White House said Annan's decision to quit had highlighted Assad's failure to meet his promise to abide by the ceasefire plan, and added that it
continued to believe that "Assad must go".